The Road Home
by Darkchilde
Summary: The road home is always the hardest...**uploaded Chapter 2**
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: I don't own them, Disney does. This story just leapt out at me while I was sitting in front of my computer, and I really have no idea where it came from. It will make more sense when I get more into it--these first two chapters are slightly confusing, I will admit. :) Anyway, without further ado...

The Road Home

Prologue 

Three years. It had been nearly three years since he had been home, nearly three years since he had seen the house he had grown up in, nearly three years since he had been in the town that would never be and at the same time, always be his home. 

A lot could happen in three years. 

Jamie Waite tightened his grip on the steering wheel of his car until his knuckles turned white. Noticing, he loosened his grip, and tried to calm the fluttering in his stomach. At that moment, he missed his motorcycle--roaring through the streets with the wind all around him was one of the most therapeutic things in the world to him. But he had had to sell his bike when he moved to Maine--there was snow on the roads nine months out of twelve, and it was just plain COLD up there to boot. 

A small smile touched his lips--that was one of the reasons that he was excited to come home to Kingsport, Virginia. The high was never in the single digits when the weatherman reported it. 

The smile fell off his face as he passed the dark green sign with the words "Welcome To Kingsport!" scrawled across it in fancy script. 

He was here. He was in Kingsport. 

He was home. 

And, at the same time, slowly trapping himself in his own personal hell again. 

"Thank God it's only for a week." Jamie muttered to himself, taking his foot off the gas pedal to compensate for the lower speed limit through town. 

The twenty one year old man soon pulled up to an intersection, and stopped at the red light, curiosity getting the better of him as he scanned the surrounding area. It all looked exactly the same, Jamie realized, looking at everything around him with a melancholy kind of awe. Nothing in this town ever changes. 

The radio, playing softly as to add background noise for the entire seven hour trip, suddenly began to hum an almost familiar sounding song. The light was still red, so Jamie leaned down and twisted the black knob, letting the music fill the small car, and his heart lurched in his chest. 

__

find me here  
speak to me  
I want to feel you  
I need to hear you  
you are the light  
that is leading me  
to the place where  
I find peace again  


He grabbed the knob and twisted it 'off' so hard he was surprised that the cheap plastic piece didn't come off in his hand. Swallowing, he tried to get control of his rolling emotions, and he ran his fingers through his black hair, looking around the intersection with a sinking feeling in his stomach. 

Jamie knew where he was. He went straight to go to his mother's house. He went right to go to..._her_ house. 

"The horns of a dilemma." Jamie mused out loud to himself, and shook his head at the phrase. One of his former girlfriends, Kate something or other, had always been at the 'horns of a dilemma'. 

That was one of the things he had liked about her, Jamie realized now. She was dramatic--the first time he had ever seen her she was standing on the base of a statue and screaming for some kind of reform in the grading system. 

It had been his first month of college, and he was still trying to adjust to being away from home. He'd let himself be drawn in by her dramatic speech, not to mention her petite frame and long dyed black hair, and had gotten her number as soon as she was finished with her rant. That had led to a whirlwind three week romance, that had ended as suddenly as it had started. 

And that had been his longest relationship as of yet, Jamie mused to himself, tapping his fingers across the wheel of the cars tunelessly. The light was still glowing crimson, and Jamie looked at his blinker. 

Should he? Could he? 

Don't do it, a little voice in the back of his head whispered. All you'll do is drag up buried pain, pain you've been running from for nearly four years, and you've just NOW gotten over. Do you really want to go through all of that again? 

Do you really want to live the rest of your life with that last image of her? Or do you want to see her now, see that she's happy with her life and has moved on? The second voice to speak up was softer, gentler, and sounded like his mother, he realized. 

Don't do it.

Do it.

Don't be stupid!

Do it. 

His fingers wrapped around the blinker and pushed up, making the tiny right arrow on his dashboard light up and start flickering.

Fool.

"I know." Jamie answered the first voice out loud, just as the light went from blood red to green. 

Taking a deep breath, he turned the wheel, and headed down Oak street, his heart pounding in his ears. 

How many times had he ridden his motorcycle down this road? How many times had he passed the bright red house with the black shutters? How many times had he turned this corner and headed down Graymalkin Lane? 

How many times had he pulled into the driveway of a two story white house with cream shutters and a gray garage door? 

How many times had he knocked on the cream colored door, only to have a bundle of dark hair and hazel eyes throw herself at him before he even dropped his hand?

Too many to count. 

Jamie slowed his black car down to a crawl, looking at Catie Roth's former home with pain filled eyes. Tears burned at his eyes, and he blinked them back, before pressing his foot down on the accelerator and heading for his mother's restaurant, hoping to put the past where it belonged. 

Behind him. 

But the image of flashing hazel eyes and silky black hair still haunted him, no matter how hard he tried to forget. 


	2. The Road Home Chapter 1: Ghosts From th...

Disclaimer: Still not mine, still Disney's. Anyway, this is a future fic, which I think I forgot to mention in the prologue, but I'm sure you figured it out. There is some confusing stuff in here, but I PROMISE I will explain who everyone is...Jamie's family you know, but Jade Kwan is introduced in "The Lady Or the Tigress", which is not finished yet. Pedro and Juan Vaz will be introduced in "Let Me In", a semi-sequel to "Mouth". Anyway, I hope it's not to confusing, and without further ado...

The Road Home

Chapter 1

"When is he gonna get here!?" Eight-year-old Sami Waite demanded from her mother, looking up at her with large brown eyes, her long red hair pulled into a braid at the back of her head. 

Her mother, Genevieve Waite, shook her head, her slight graying red hair swinging across her face. A smile pulled at the corners of her lips as she looked at her youngest child, eagerly awaiting the return of her oldest child. Wiping at the counter of her cafe, she attempted to pacify the child. "Soon, sweetheart. It's a long drive from Maine." 

"Yeah--remember, it took us, like, ten hours to get there, remember?" Eleven-year-old Molly reminded her younger sister, sitting on the edge of one of the booths, swinging her legs back and forth. 

"That's only because Jazz kept getting car sick!" Crimson Waite, the sixteen-year-old sister of the two girls, piped up, her voice floating from up underneath the countertop as she searched in vain for a napkin holder. 

"It was a windy road!" Eighteen-year-old Jazz defended herself, pushing through the kitchen door, dressed in her waitress uniform, in time to hear her sister's comment. She was tying her long black hair back in a ponytail as she came in, making her the only dark haired girl in the entire family. 

"Sure it was." Crimson smirked, finally giving up her search for the illusive napkin holder and rising from her position on the floor, dressed in an exact copy of Jazz's uniform. "Jazz, it was the freaking highway!" 

"Oh, be quiet." The older girl mumbled, looking down at her shoes for a moment, before looking back up at her mother and sisters with a small smile. "It's not my fault I get car sick!" 

"Yeah, it's your father's!" Genevieve assured her oldest daughter, her smile becoming slightly melancholy. Her husband had been dead almost nine years, but it still hurt some times. 

"Yeah. So, when IS Jamie going to get here?" Crimson changed the subject rapidly, noticing the sadness in their mother's dark brown eyes, eyes that all the Waite children had been blessed with. 

"Well, he said he'd be here around--" Genevieve was cut off by the opening and closing of the cafe door. She looked up, and her eyes light up, a smile flashing like lightening onto her face.

"Now." Jamie Waite's deep voice filled the room, and was then nearly tackled by the five petite women of his family. 

"Jamie! Your home!" Sami squealed, reaching him first and wrapping her arms tightly around his knees. 

Her older brother chuckled, and swung the little girl up into his arms, giving her a hug and a kiss on the top of the head and putting her down, only to have his arms filled with both Molly and Jazz. He gave both girls one handed hugs and then turned them loose, but was given no time to breathe as Crimson flung herself at him, wrapping her arms around his neck and hugging her tightly. 

Through all of this, their mother had stood a few feet back, beaming happily at having all of her children back in the same place. Jamie moving to Maine had been one of the most trying experiences of her life--it was almost as bad as losing Sam again.

By this time, Jamie had gotten loose from his overexcited little sisters, and was standing in front of her, a small, almost sheepish smile on his face. 

"Mere." He said in his deep bass voice, and Genevieve beamed at her son, stepping forward to wrap her arms around his neck. 

"Mon fils, it is good to see you again." The woman said softly, parts of her French-Canadian accent coming back, like it always did when she was over emotional. 

"It's good to see you too." Jamie murmured into her hair, before turning her loose and grinning mischievously at her. "So, what would it take to get something to eat around here?" 

"Coming home more often." Was Sami's immediate response, and Jamie laughed, looking down at the little girl with warm eyes. 

"Did you miss me, Sami?" He teased the child lightly, and she stuck out her lower lip, giving him his own patented puppy dog look. 

"Duh." She answered, holding her hands up to him in a silent plea to be picked up, like she had done when she had been younger. Her older brother obliged, swinging her off of her feet and onto her accustom place on his hip. The girl wrapped her arms around his neck to steady herself, and then smiled at her family, all of who were grinning at the picture the two made. 

"I'm glad, cause I missed you too." Jamie told her, leaning his forehead against hers. Sami giggled and kissed him, on the cheek, before laying her head down on his shoulder. "Anyway, getting back to my original question..." 

"Oh, don't worry, I have something cooking in the back!" Genevieve assured him, turning on her heel, and heading for the kitchen her red hair swining. 

"_You_ have something cooking in the back, or there _is_ something cooking in the back?" Jamie asked, his face twisting just the slightest bit. 

"Is that another crack about my cooking!?" Genevieve's voice floated back from the kitchen and her children laughed. 

"Of...COURSE not, Mom..." Jamie trailed off, making a horrified face at the girls. He looked at Jazz with puppy dogs eyes for a minute, trying to get her to answer his question. Jazz grinned, and shook her head. 

"Juan's cooking it." Jazz mouthed to him, and Jamie visibly relaxed. At that moment, Genevieve came back into the room, carrying a plate and a glass of dark liquid, her dark eyes sparkling. 

"I heard that, Jazz." Her mother teased the dark haired girl, who blushed slightly. 

"Are you ever going to tell us how you do that?" Crimson demanded, putting her hands on her hips. 

"It's instinctive in parents." The older woman explained, a smile flashing on her face, as she set the plate in front of Jamie after he had put Sami down and sat down at one of the wooden tables. Sami then clambered back into her brother's lap, careful to leave his hands free so he could eat. "Don't worry, I'm sure you'll all get it when you have your children." 

"Thanks Mom." Jamie thanked his mother, eyeing the food in front of him. Taking his first bite, he swallowed it, and then looked around the place for a moment, before settling his gaze back on his mom. "So, what's new around here?" 

"Nothing. You know this place never changes." Crimson was the first to respond, scoffing at the very idea. 

"That's not exactly true. Guess who decided to become, and then MADE EMT?" Jazz smirked at Crimson, who looked down at the table and began tracing the wooden swirls with her pinkie finger. 

"Your kidding?" Jamie nearly choked on his soda, his dark eyes darting to Crimson. "Since when are you interested in stuff like that?" 

The girl just shrugged, a half smile pulling at the corner of her lips. "Since I figured Alex had had enough of a break from Waite family." 

Jamie chuckled softly, putting his hand up to his forehead. Then the image of his spunky, firebrand little sister going head to head with the stubborn Dr. Alex Freedmen presented itself to his mind, and he began to laugh in earnest. 

"Poor...Alex." Jamie managed to wheeze out, still laughing. When he finally got a hold of himself, he grinned at his redheaded little sister. "Are you on call today?" 

"Actually, no. Brooke said she would cover for me, since you were coming home." Crimson told him, tucking a lock of her fire colored hair behind her ear. 

"Brooke Linear?" Jamie asked, looking up in surprise. "She's an EMT too? Figures. How is she, by the way?" 

"Pretty good. She's got a boyfriend--Pedro Vaz." Crimson told him, grinning at the shock that spread across her older brother's face at the name. 

"YOUR friend Pedro Vaz? Juan's little brother?" Jamie demanded, his eyes still shocked. Crimson's grin turned into a full fledged smile at that point, her dark eyes twinkling. 

"Yep. Opposites attract." 

"Evidently. Do you know anything about her older sister?" He asked, his curiosity getting the better of him. 

"Wasn't she a friend of yours? Val?" Genevieve piped up, brushing a lock of red hair out of her face. Her son looked over at her, and nodded before she spoke.

"Yeah, she was. How is she, do you know, Crimmie?" Jamie asked, turning his attention from his mother back to his sister. 

"Actually, yes I do. Brooke mentioned it a few days ago--she's going to school at UVA, pre-medicine of course. And evidently, is getting engaged." Crimson finished the last statement in a confidential whisper. 

"To WHO?" Jamie demanded, his eyes bright. 

Crimson smirked at her brother, before continuing. "Tyler Connell." 

"For REAL!?" He leaned back in his chair, his eyes sparkling wickedly. 

"Oh yeah. Well, that's what Brooke says." Crimson allowed, a small smile pulling at her lips. The red head shrugged, remembering her brother's other friend from the EMT squad. "She didn't say anything about Hank, sorry." 

Jamie grinned again, and rubbed his chin. "Hank's living in New York City." 

"How do you know that? I didn't know that you kept up with any of the squad." Jazz questioned, lifting her eyebrows. 

"I don't really. But I do keep up with Jade, and since they happen to be living together..." Jamie trailed off, grinning at the shocked looks that suddenly sprang to his sisters and mother's faces. 

"Your KIDDING?! Jade Kwan--little bitty Jade Kwan, your best friend since you guys were like six?!" Genevieve asked, her eyes widening. 

"Yep--evidently, they liked each other a lot more then they let on in high school." Jamie grinned evilly, smirking at his mother's shocked expression. 

"Evidently." The red haired woman agreed, shaking her head. 

Jamie's smile disappeared suddenly, and he looked down at the table, tracing the whorls in the wood with his index finger. Very carefully, he phrased his next question in his mind, and wondering why he was even going to ask. They wouldn't know anything about....

"So--did Brooke say anything about Caitie?" 

As soon as the words were out of his mouth, he wanted to pull them back. Why had he asked? He didn't really think that he wanted to know--didn't think he could handle the truth. If he didn't want to know, a voice in the back of his mind screamed, why had he asked? 

"Umm...Mom? You...didn't...tell him?" Jazz asked her mother slowly, who was suddenly very interested in the design of the wood on the table. 

"I, well...I was going to..." Genevieve trailed off helplessly. 

"Tell me what?" Jamie asked, looking at his mother and then at his sister, and back again. 

"Well, Jamie, honey..." Genevieve was cut off by the opening of the door, the bells attached to it jingling. 

"Hey, Genevi....Jamie?!" 

A voice from the past danced across Jamie's ears, and he leapt to his feet, his eyes widening at the sight of the young woman standing in front of him, looking as beautiful as the first day he had seen her. 

"CAITIE?!" 


	3. The Road Home Chapter 2: What You Miss I...

Disclaimer: Hey, there not mine, unless some one wants to give me Christopher Ralph! :) They belong to Disney! Anyway, I FINALLY got the next chapter of this story up--yay! (Yes, I had a snow day today, for anyone wondering, so I got to work on all the stuff that I have been putting off! Hehehe!) Well, I can't think of anything else, so without further ado...

The Road Home

Chapter 2

This had to be a dream. 

Caitie Roth chanted the sentence in her mind, over and over again, as she stared into a pair of the darkest brown eyes she had ever seen--and though that she would never see again. Long lashes framed those deep depths, so long that they nearly brushed his cheek when he blinked. 

Tearing her eyes away from his, she took survey of the rest of him, her heart banging like a jackhammer in her chest. He had stood when she had entered the room, giving her a full view of him. 

His trademark leather jacket had been replaced with on with a slightly looser cut, flowing around him like black mist. A pure white tee shirt sparkled from the depths of the jacket, laying flat against his stomach and outlining the muscles that lay beneath. His long legs were encased in dark blue jeans, slightly tighter then she had seen him wear before. His jet black hair was still spiked and wild, and his lips...his lips. 

Lord, he hadn't changed. 

Her mind was full of how he had once looked, and looked back at her, a smile pulling at those lips that made her tremble inside now. She could hear his silky voice, caressing her ears, sliding out of the darkness to wrap around her like a blanket. 

She could still see his eyes, staring into hers with so much love and longing in them that she thought she was going to drown in those warm pools of light. Even now, she could see those eyes, superimposed over the dark, older, colder eyes that stared back at her now. 

Not that she could blame him for having cold eyes. How could she? Blame him, that is. 

How could she not blame herself? 

Caitie felt tears burning at the back of her eyes, but after nearly four years of practice, she had learned to shove them back, to blink them away. But this time, they refused to budge, and she had to fight the sob that rose in her throat. 

He took a step forward, as though he was going to come to her, but then stopped, almost like his feet were cemented to the floor. Caitie swallowed hard again, wanting to reach out to him, to go to him, but some invisible force stopped her. 

But no matter how much her body refused to move, she still couldn't take her eyes off of him, her mouth opening on its own accord. She snapped her lips shut when she realized that there was nothing she could think to say. 

What does one say when she's lost, for the first time in years, in the eyes of the man she never stopped loving? 

@-}--}---

Jamie Waite stared at her, his heart stopping in his chest for the briefest period of time, and then beating overtime to make up for it's lack. 

Good Heaven, she was beautiful. Why did she have to still be as beautiful as the last time he had seen her? 

Her long black hair was longer now, falling to nearly the middle of her back. A stray strand of the ebony locks had fallen into her face, and clung to the smooth porcelain of her cheek. The rest was coaxed back into a hair clip, a gold and blue one from what he could see. 

He couldn't look her in the eye yet, so he allowed his eyes to scan the rest of her face. Her cheekbones were still high, and her skin was still smooth, and her lips still held that semi-pout that he found...had found so incredibly sexy. 

Jamie pulled his eyes away from her face--that was dangerous. He shifted his gaze to her feet, but to do so, he had to pass by the rest of her body, and that's when he realized what she was wearing. 

The dark haired woman was clad in the dark blue and black uniform, the same uniform that his two oldest younger sisters were dressed in. And something was telling him that his mother's cafe's waitress uniform was NOT the newest style. 

He wanted to turn around and glare at his mother for not at least WARNING him that the woman he had once and still loved-- worked in her restaurant. 

@-}--}---

They could have stood there forever, both losing themselves in the past, if the present reality hadn't taken that moment to make itself known in the form of Crimson. 

The red head cleared her throat loudly, drawing air between her teeth as she did so to make a quick little noise at the front of her mouth. The noise caught the attention of the former lovers, causing Jamie to turn around, so that he was no longer looking at Caitie. 

"Umm...well...isn't this..." Genevieve trailed off, taken aback the sudden pain she saw in both young people's eyes. 

She hadn't thought that it would hurt them both so much to see one another again. Causing her beloved son and the girl she had always wanted for a daughter-in-law pain had been the last thing on her mind when she concocted her little plan for them to see one another again, and perhaps, get back the fire and love they had once had. 

It actually hadn't even been a plan. It was actually nothing more then a series of coincidences that had brought the "star-crossed lovers" as Molly had dreamily dubbed them together. 

It had been a coincidence when she had run out of tea bags the same time that Caitie Roth had, three months ago. It had been a coincidence that they had literally run into one another at the market place. 

Of course, it wasn't really a coincidence that she had asked Caitie out to lunch at her cafe. She hadn't heard even the merest whisper of the girl's name, for nearly four years, and she was morbidly curious to see what the young woman that had neatly shattered her son's heart had been doing. 

Perhaps "morbid curiosity" hadn't really been the right word. Perhaps it was a mother's need to know that those that had hurt her children had properly paid for it. So, with the skillful bluntness her son had inherited from her, Genevieve has set about her task.

What she had found out was more then enough to satisfy that cruel little need to know. In fact, it tore at the older woman so hard, she had pushed aside the past, and offered the young woman a job. Anyone that could suffer as Caitie had deserved a break. 

At first, Caitie had refused. When Genevieve had prodded her on the point, Caitie had reminded her of the past Genevieve's son and the girl shared, the woman had waved her hand, deciding, in that moment, that the past was dead. 

"Le passé est mort." 

Now, to convince her beloved little boy of that point. 

Taking a deep breath, Genevieve steeled herself, and faked a smile. 

"Um, Jamie--I believe you know Caitie Roth?" 

@-}--}---

Sami knew her mother had made a mistake the second the words were out of her mouth. The little girl didn't REALLY understand what had happened between Caitie and Jamie all those years ago--she had only been four at the time--but she did remember..._that_ night. 

She had gotten up to answer nature's call and to find some one to give her a drink of water. When the most important business had been taken care of, the little girl had padded downstairs, wondering if her older brother was home yet. 

Sami had pushed through the doors of the living room--and stopped dead in her tracks. 

Jamie had been sitting on the couch, his head in his hands, and his shoulders shaking roughly. The sadness had rolled off of him in waves, bringing tears to his baby sisters eyes as quickly as if it had been her to hurt, and not her brother. Sami, not knowing what else to do, and moved forward until she was standing in front of her brother, staring at her brother with the same wide brown eyes as him. 

He'd looked up then, and Sami had been shocked to see the tears that rolled down his cheeks. She had NEVER seen her brother cry before, not once. Unable to stop herself, teardrops had began to roll down her face in a flood. 

Jamie had pulled her onto his lap at that point, hugging her as they cried together--he for the loss of the only woman he would ever love, and she for the pain that he was going thorough. 

Snapping herself out of the past, Sami locked her eyes on her brother and Caitie, closer to each other now then they had been in years. 

The little girl could see the hurt in both their faces, could almost taste the pain and the tears that she knew were threatening to run down their faces. Sami watched, almost spellbound, as he brother turned from glaring at their mother, to look back at Caitie, meeting her gaze for a second before looking away. 

Caitie opened her mouth to speak, and then shut it again. Jamie still refused to look at her, his frame so tight it looked like he was going to shatter to pieces at any moment. 

Not knowing what else to do, Sami stepped forward, intending to go to her brother, but Caitie's voice brought her up short. Evidently, the dark haired girl had finally hit upon something to say. 

"Hello Jamie." 

@-}--}---

Her voice. Oh, God, her voice. Her voice--that voice could have and did call him back from his personal darkness some many times, that voice had warmed his heart, made him feel like he was flying--and that voice had been the one to destroy him. 

He couldn't handle this. He had to get away from this, from her, from her voice, from the memories that he couldn't forget, from the pain that had never stopped, and from the love that would never loosen it's grip on his heart.

Without so much as a glance at his family, Jamie Waite did the only thing he could think to do--he ran. 


End file.
